During fall of last year, Disney made a huge splash in the entertainment world and acquired LucasFilm. After the new ownership subsequently announced that it would complete the last Star Wars trilogy, people wondered what would happen to the merry band of game developers known as LucasArts. Disney isn’t averse to weird crossovers, as it showed with the Kingdom Hearts franchise, and they do also own Marvel. We’re sad to report, though, that instead of Wolverine’s claws being replaced by lightsabers in canon, Disney is simply closing down LucasArts instead.

In a statement today, Disney said that it had evaluated the games market, and decided it would be better to “shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model.”

Unfortunately for those looking forward to Star Wars 1313, the gritty third-person action game where players assumed the role of a bounty hunter, the game has been canceled. However, it’s entirely possible another studio will pick up the license and give the game a second chance.

Though LucasArts hasn’t had even a fraction of the impact it once had, it’s still a sad day when such an important factor in the rise of the video game industry ceases to be.

In January Amazon launched its AutoRip service, which saw every music CD purchase accompanied by the 256Kbps MP3 versions of each music track for free. So for anyone who still prefers to have a physical copy of their music, there was no need to take the time to rip it for your digital music player of choice.

Now Amazon is extending the AutoRip service to include another physical music format it sells: vinyl.

AutoRip music is stored for free on your account in the cloud, it can also be played back instantly on any Android or iOS device, Kindle devices, web browsers, Samsung TVs, and even a Roku or Sonos.So, unless there’s a major price difference at another online store, Amazon just gave you another reason to buy from them instead.

Facebook has sent out invitations to an event on April 4th that teased “Come See Our New Home on Android.” Speculation is running rampant that Facebook will finally reveal the oft-rumored Facebook Phone, but there’s a good possibility that its old friend HTC will be on hand to show off the HTC Myst. The Myst could be the duo’s third attempt at building an Android phone with deep Facebook integration.

It has been said several times that Facebook doesn’t need to build its own phone. That’s because pretty much every smartphone on the market is already a Facebook phone because its apps are not only available, they’re among the most widely-installed mobile apps in the world. Although, the experience isn’t always ideal, and it’s not as seamless as Facebook would like.

The HTC One’s Ultrapixel camera is reported as a 4MP shooter, so that could mean HTC has opted for a more traditional setup in the Myst. It could also be an inaccuracy in the leaked specs, but perhaps we’ll find out for sure on April 4.

The date lines up nicely, since the HTC Myst just stopped by the FCC a few days ago. Will it be in attendance to show off Facebook’s new Android Home?

Talk about military surveillance and images of unmanned drones come to mind. But typically they are air and ground based units. The US Navy wants to get in on the action, though, and has tasked Virginia Tech College of Engineering with developing an autonomous robotic jellyfish.

The project has been ongoing since last year thanks to a 5-year grant from the Office of Naval Research. A lab in Virginia Tech’s Durham Hall has been outfitted with a tank containing 600 gallons of water that forms the hub of the research.

But the research team still has 3 years of grant money with which to solve that problem, perfect propulsion, and make this a truly autonomous unit. Uses aren’t just limited to surveillance, either. The jellyfish could be loaded up with sensors to become an ocean research device, or help with clean up operations after an oil spill.

It takes a lot of heat to melt metal, normally requiring some kind of heavy-duty torch to get the job done manually. However, with a bit of electricity and wire, you can melt a chunk of metal with a magnetic field, and suspend in it mid-air so it looks cool during the process.

The setup is more simple than you likely imagined, as it uses induction heating to melt the metal chunk without having to strap on a visor and break out a blowtorch. In order to make the metal float, it needs to be suspended in the middle of a magnetic field.